Business

Killjoy Toys

Is a brief ban on Chinese toys enough to save our kids from toxic toys?

Advertisement

Killjoy Toys
info_icon
F
info_icon
Straight shoot Plastic toys can contain harmful additives like phthalates

Unfortunately, the six-month ban raises far more questions: What's the real motive? Will it adequately address concerns on child health and safety? What about the questionable quality of many toys made within the country? For one, the timing has flummoxed most in the toy industry. "We're not clear what has brought about this ban. We were certainly not expecting it," says R. Jeswant, general manager, Funskool India, which meets 40 per cent of its sales in India with imports from China. Shedding light, commerce secretary G.K. Pillai states, "We should have taken this step (the ban) long ago. As it is, in response to a PIL, the Bombay High Court wants to know why we're not prohibiting unsafe toys."

Advertisement

info_icon


Spiked colours Toxics in paints can enter the body through contact

Following a report by Delhi-based NGO Toxics Link in 2006-07, highlighting the presence of toxic materials in a range of toys priced below Rs 150 ($3) found across the country, the Consumer Welfare Association of Mumbai filed the PIL. An added provocation was the government failure to check imports of 'harmful' toys. Says Rajiv Chavan, the advocate representing CWA, "There are two issues we have raised: the import of toys and the manufacturing of Indian toys." Indian toys meet around 50 per cent of the Rs 10,000-crore domestic market. According to Toxics Link, high levels of lead, cadmium and phthalates (a chemical used for softening plastics) can be found in most cheap toys—be they Indian or imported—bought by a majority of urban children. "How does the ban on Chinese toys protect consumers' interest considering half the market is mostly cheap made-in-India toys with no control on quality," asks Ravi Agarwal of Toxics Link. "There is need for a mandatory standard to protect young consumers," he adds.

And spurred on by the judiciary, various ministries—consumer affairs, health, commerce, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME)—have begun to study ways to enforce quality standards. The bad news: don't expect safer toys in a hurry. Take, for instance, the norms put out by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which fall far short of global standards. While the European Commission had 11 safety standards for toys, India had only three—which deal with the mechanical and physical safety and flammability of toys. "The BIS calls these three standards equivalent to European standards.... But for other areas like organic, chemicals, paints and solvents used, we have nothing," complains A.M. Mascarenhas, secretary, Mumbai CWA.

Consumer affairs secretary Yashwant Bhave admits many issues are yet to be looked at. Though BIS has standards, "the issue is of making them compulsory", he says. The ministry is studying the legality of making the standards mandatory and whether it would require "mere notification or bringing in legislation", which would mean seeking Parliament approval. Pillai reveals there's a proposal to make quality standards mandatory for certain products for young children. Simultaneously, the MSME ministry is studying ways to gradually introduce mandatory requirements to regulate toxicity of chemicals used in toys. "We have been told that in the first stage rules will be set for PVC and metal toys," says Ashok Jain, president, All India Toy Manufacturers Association. To support industry, more toy-testing labs will be set up (there are only four now).

Then, recently, the health ministry constituted a committee headed by Dr Y.K. Gupta of the AIIMS pharmacology department to study the veracity of the Toxics Link report. Says Dr R.S. Dhaliwal of ICMR and coordinator of the seven-member panel, "The health effects of metals are already known. What we are studying is the levels of toxicity in toys and its uptake or migration into the human body." While the domestic toy industry is ready to abide by better quality standards, this will take time: the court has been informed that the process to gauge levels of chemicals in toys can take up to two years.

Clearly, it'll take more than six months to bring in mandatory quality norms. But it will have to be on hold till the new government takes charge. In the interim, the ban will give some protection to domestic industry which has been virtually wiped out by Chinese products. But the big stores say the ban makes no sense, as importers would have plenty of stocks. There's no sense of urgency to make our children's toys safe. Something is terribly wrong.

Advertisement

Tags

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement